Final Tornado Report From March 10th

The final report from last week's tornadoes has been released. Let's take a look at the tornadoes one by one. First, the tornado in Saline county was an EF1. 18 homes had minor damage, 2 homes had major damage, and 2 homes were totally destroyed.  Amazingly, NO INJURIES! Here's a look from StormTRACK Doppler 8 as we tracked it getting closer to Region 8:

 The velocity data (winds) strongly indicated a tornado as seen in the first image with StormTRACK Doppler 8's Velocity Scope. The second image shows the classic "hook" on the storm. Click the image to enlarge.

The second tornado was the Cleburne County tornado. It was deadly. It was an EF2. It killed 1 and injured 4. Two homes were destroyed, and 8 others damaged. Here's a screen grab of our coverage showing the radar image at that time:

The third tornado was in White County. It was an EF1 near Letona and Center Hill. Once again, radar looked very impressive and we were tracking this one closely due to the data we were seeing. We were also tracking this storm in the Wood Ford StormTRACKER before it got too dark. You can clearly see the rotation on StormTRACK Doppler 8:

The fourth tornado was also in White County near Steprock and was spawn from the same storm. We had Region 8 Weather Watcher, Robert Rowland on LIVE when this one was moving near Steprock, AR. Here's a screen capture of StormTRACK Doppler 8 while we were talking to Robert:

The fifth tornado was in Independence County near Rosie. Once again, radar gave us a great advantage and the people of Rosie had lots of time to take cover! As you can see, they at least had over 15 minutes:

And finally, there was one tornado in Missouri. The bad news is that there was NOT a warning. We just happened to be on air, but could not see the threat on radar. Many parts of Region 8 are too far from Doppler Radar sites, and some tornadoes can go undetected. It's not the fault of anyone, that's just the reality... especially at night. Hopefully more radars are added in the future. The tornado was rated an EF1 and there was one minor injury. Big thanks to Ryan Difani for correcting me on the time of the tornado. Here's a screen grab of that storm during our coverage when we cut in during Jimmy Kimmel:

Severe weather season kicked in last Wednesday and we all need to be prepared for the rest of the season. We learned a couple of things on Wednesday. First, I learned that we need as many eyes on the storm as possible. That's why we're so blessed to have great storm spotters. Robert Rowland did an amazing job Wednesday. He did not panic anyone. He did not scream and yell. He observed and passed along the information without hyping it up. Perfect. Second, I learned that we have so much info coming in now! Between Twitter, the NWS Chat, and The Loop. Information is instant! This will save lives!

Review your plans over the next few days and get ready. We'll have more storms before you know it!

Ryan